Equipment

Callaway launches XR16 and XR16 Pro fairway woods

Published

8 years ago

Jan 5, 2016

For its XR16 drivers, Callaway focused mostly on improving the aerodynamics of its crown for more speed. For the XR16 fairway woods, however, Callaway wasn’t singularly focused on improving just one facet of the club.

That’s because fairway woods take on different roles for different golfers, so simply making them “faster,” which is almost always the goal in driver design, isn’t necessarily a winning formula for fairways. Fairway woods also need to be forgiving and versatile, and move through the turf easily when hitting shots from the fairway or rough.

Therefore, when designing the XR16 fairway woods, Callaway wanted to increase ball speeds and lower spin compared to the XR fairway woods, but also introduce greater forgiveness and versatility to satisfy golfers’ every need.

Let’s see how Callaway accomplished that with its most “comprehensive and complete” line of woods ever, according to Callaway’s Senior R&D Woods Manager, Evan Gibbs.

Callaway XR16 Pro (top) and XR16 fairway woods.

For Callaway, fairway wood design starts with its bread and butter — Face Cup technology. Gibbs says Face Cup is the core technology that separates its fairway woods from competitors in terms of ball speed, and it serves as the “engine of the club.” And in its fourth generation, Face Cup continues to improve compared to its predecessors.

In the XR16 fairways, the Face Cup insert is made from a 455 Carpenter Stainless Steel alloy, a material that allows Callaway to make its face extremely thin and flexible; and its even thinner and hotter than ever, according to Callaway. Variable thickness — thinner around the perimeter and thicker in the center — also allows the club to produce higher ball speeds on shots hit across the face.

To maintain low spin and high launch of the XR’s, the XR16 fairways also have the familiar “Internal Standing Wave,” which sits behind the bottom portion of the face and drives CG low and forward.

A graphic of Callaway’s Internal Standing Wave technology.

Callaway also looked to increase moment of inertia (MOI), a measure of forgiveness, in order to make the “bad shots look more like the good shots,” as Gibbs puts it, with its new clubs. To accomplish that, the XR16 fairway woods were made with a larger profile with reduced weight in the crown — actually, the company’s thinnest cast crown ever — helping move CG lower and deeper.

Callaway’s XR16 fairway woods have more camber and heel/toe relief than its predecessors.

Additionally, their soles feature more camber and more sole relief than their predecessors, which allows the leading edge of the club to sit closer to the ground at address and helps keep the club from getting stuck in the turf at it moves through the ground.

The result of the improvements? The XR16 fairway woods boast 28 percent more consistent carry distance and 8 percent more consistent ball speed compared to the XR fairway woods, according to Callaway testing. For golfers who want higher ball speeds on off-center hits (that’s just about everyone), that’s a positive.

Specs

With such a wide variety of offerings, how should you go about choosing the right fairway wood for you?

Callaway’s XR16 standard fairway wood.

Loft for loft, the XR16 standard fairway woods (15.5, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25 degrees) are larger than their XR16 Pro counterparts. They’ll produce a higher launch angle, more draw bias and more forgiveness.

Callaway’s XR16 Pro fairway wood, with 14 degrees of loft.

The XR16 Pro fairway woods (14, 16 and 18 degrees) have a smaller footprint, will be slightly more fade-biased and will produce a lower-spinning, more penetrating trajectory.

An interesting option for golfers who rely on their fairway wood as a second driver off the tee to consider is the XR16 3+. At 14 degrees and 162 cubic centimeters, it has a head size that’s halfway between the 14-degree XR16 Pro and the 15.5 degree XR16. As far as its ball flight goes, it produces the low trajectory and low spin of the XR16 Pro, but has the draw-bias and forgiveness of the XR16.

Callaway’s XR Pro (left) and XR16 fairway woods from address.

Each of the fairway woods will be available on January 29. The XR16 woods will sell for $229.99, and come stock with a Fujikura Speeder 565 Evolution shaft. The XR16 Pro woods will sell for $249.99 and come stock with a Fujikura Speeder 755 Evolution II TS fairway shaft.

See more photos of Callaway’s new XR16 and XR16 pro woods here.

Your Reaction?

LIKE104
LEGIT6
WOW2
LOL6
IDHT1
FLOP5
OB3
SHANK12

Whats in the Bag

Kevin Streelman WITB 2024 (April)

Published

4 hours ago

Apr 29, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

Kevin Streelman what’s in the bag accurate as of the Zurich Classic.

Driver: Titleist TSR3 (10 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black 6 X

3-wood: Titleist TSR3 (15 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 8 X

Check out more in-hand photos of Kevin Streelman’s clubs here.

5-wood: Ping G (17.5 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 10 X

Irons: Wilson Staff Model CB (4-9)
Shafts: Project X 6.5

Check out more in-hand photos of Kevin Streelman’s clubs here.

Wedges: Wilson Staff Model (48-08, 54-08), Titleist Vokey Design WedgeWorks (58-L @59)
Shafts: Project X 6.5 (48), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (54, 58)

Putter: Scotty Cameron TourType SSS TG6

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Check out more in-hand photos of Kevin Streelman’s clubs here.

Your Reaction?

LIKE1
LEGIT0
WOW0
LOL0
IDHT0
FLOP0
OB0
SHANK0

Equipment

Choose Your Driver: Which 2012 driver was your favorite?

Published

4 hours ago

Apr 29, 2024

GolfWRX Staff

The year was 2012. Gangnam Style ruled supreme, its infectious beats and ludicrous horse-riding dance moves hypnotizing us with their stupidity. Everyone was talking about the Mayan calendar, convinced that the end of days was near. Superheroes soared on the silver screen, with the Avengers assembling in epic fashion. Katniss Everdeen survived The Hunger Games. And the memes! The memes abounded. Grumpy Cat triumphed. We kept calm and carried on.

In much the same way that automotive enthusiasts love classic cars, we at GolfWRX love taking a backward glance at some of the iconic designs of years past. Heck, we love taking iconic designs to the tee box in the present!

In that spirit, GolfWRX has been running a series inspired by arguably the greatest fighting game franchise of all time: Mortal Kombat. It’s not “choose your fighter” but rather “choose your driver.”

Check out some of the standout combatants of 2012 below.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by GolfWRX (@golfwrx)

Nike VRS

Often harshly critiqued during its years releasing golf equipment (right, Phil Mickelson?), Nike’s tenure in the club-and-ball business gets a gloss of nostalgic varnish, with many of its iron and putter designs continuing to attract admirers. Among the company’s driver offerings, the 2012 VRS — or VR_S, if you will — drew high marks for its shaping and toned-down appearance. The multi-thickness, NexCOR face was no joke either.

Check out our coverage from 2012 here.

Callaway RAZR Fit

Callaway’s first foray into moveable weight technology (married with its OptiFit hosel) did not disappoint. With a carbon fiber crown, aerodynamic attention to detail, and variable and hyperbolic face technologies, this club foreshadowed the tech-loaded, “story in every surface” Callaway drivers of the present, AI-informed design age.

Check out our coverage from 2012 here.

Cleveland Classic 310

Truly a design that came out of left field. Cleveland said, “Give me a persimmon driver, but make it titanium…in 460cc.” Our 2012 reviewer, JokerUsn wrote, “I don’t need to elaborate on all the aesthetics of this club. You’ve seen tons of pics. You’ve all probably seen a bunch in the store and held them up close and gotten drool on them. From a playing perspective, the color is not distracting. It’s dark enough to stay unobtrusive in bright sunlight…Even my playing partners, who aren’t into clubs at all…commented on it saying it looks cool.” Long live!

Check out our coverage from 2012 here.

Titleist 910

While there’s no disputing Titleist’s “Titleist Speed” era of drivers perform better than its 2010s offerings, sentimentality abounds, and there was something classically Titleist about these clubs, right down to the alignment aid, and the look is somewhere between 983 times and the present TS age. Representing a resurgence after a disappointing stretch of offerings (907, 909), The 910D2 was a fairly broadly appealing driver with its classic look at address and classic Titleist face shape.

Check out our coverage from 2012 here.

TaylorMade RocketBallz

The white crown. The name. You either loved ‘em or you hated ‘em. TaylorMade’s 2012 offering from its RocketBallz Period boasted speed-enhancing aerodynamics and an Inverted Cone Technology in the club’s titanium face. Technology aside, it’s impossible to overstate what a departure from the norm a white-headed driver was in the world of golf equipment.

Check out our coverage from 2012 here.

Ping i20

Long a quietly assertive player in the driver space, Ping’s i20 was more broadly appealing than the G20, despite being a lower-launch, lower-spin club. Ping drivers didn’t always have looks that golfer’s considered traditional or classic, but the i20 driver bucked that trend. Combining the classic look with Ping’s engineering created a driver that better players really gravitated toward. The i20 offered players lower launch and lower spin for more penetrating ball flight while the rear 20g tungsten weights kept the head stable. Sound and feel were great also, being one of the more muted driver sounds Ping had created up to that time.

Check out our coverage from 2012 here.

GolfWRXers, let us know in the comments who “your fighter” is and why!

Your Reaction?

LIKE7
LEGIT0
WOW0
LOL0
IDHT0
FLOP1
OB0
SHANK1

Equipment

Coolest thing for sale in the GolfWRX Classifieds (4/29/24): Krank Formula Fire driver with AutoFlex SF505 shaft

Published

8 hours ago

Apr 29, 2024

Gianni Magliocco

At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals that all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.

It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.

Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, there is a listing for a Krank Formula fire driver with AutoFlex SF505 shaft.

From the seller: (@well01): “Krank formula fire 10.5 degree with AUtoflex SF505. $560 shipped.”

To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link: Krank Formula Fire driver with AutoFlex SF505 shaft

This is the most impressive current listing from the GolfWRX BST, and if you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum you can check them out here: GolfWRX BST Rules